Sunday, December 21, 2014

Note to Readers: Today's Teamster News will be on hiatus until Jan. 1, 2015.TeamstersTeamsters donate food, toys to children’s home Sunday Gazette Mail ...Ken Hall, president of Local 175, based in South Charleston, said more than $20,000 worth of toys and food were delivered this year, beating last year’s record-setting $17,000. The local union has been raising money and making donations to the Child Center for the past 14 years...TradeProtesters surround EU buildings as anti-TTIP anger voiced in Brussels Euronews …A protest has shut down much of central Brussels. Its initial intent was to overshadow the last day of the EU’s summit in the Belgium capital, but the 28 member state meeting ended a day early. The protest went on regardless, as demonstrators took to the streets against a controversial EU trade deal known as TTIP being hashed out with the US...To the Tea Party: Beware of "Free Trade" Economy In Crisis …Several national groups formed or led by establishment Republicans like Freedomworks, Tea Party Express, and Americans for Prosperity co-opted the Tea Party label for the purposes of advancing trans-national interests under the rubric of unlimited freedom of action for these same global entities...State BattlesIn a Break From Partisan Rancor, Ohio Moves to Make Elections More Competitive New York Times …in an era of hyperpartisan gerrymandering, which many blame for the polarization of state and national politics, Ohio took a step in the opposite direction last week. With the support of both parties, the Ohio House gave final approval Wednesday to a plan to draw voting districts for the General Assembly using a bipartisan process, intended to make elections more competitive...War on WorkersNLRB changes could speed up worker decisions on unions Los Angeles Times ...It’s a relatively minor victory, given all the hurdles labor activists face in trying to organize workers, but a new ruling over access to workplace email systems should be heartening to those who support collective action by workers…Employer Groups Express Disappointment With NLRB Final Rule on Union Elections Bloomberg BNA ...Following the release by the National Labor Relations Board of a final rule to streamline the resolution of union elections, many of the largest business organizations in the U.S. quickly expressed dissatisfaction with the divided board's action, and several said they will consider their options for challenging the final rule...Close huge gap between CEO, worker pay (opinion) Indianapolis Star ...In the last 35 years, the pay for chief executives of the largest U.S. companies has increased over 900 percent, while the average worker compensation has increased just 10 percent...Is It Bad Enough Yet? New York Times (opinion) …This is the United States, which, with the incoming Congress, might actually get worse. This in part explains why we’re seeing spontaneous protests nationwide, protests that, in their scale, racial diversity, anger and largely nonviolent nature, are unusual if not unique. I was in four cities recently — New York, Washington, Berkeley and Oakland — and there were actions every night in each of them. Meanwhile, workers walked off the job in 190 cities on Dec. 4...5 Reasons for the Slow Recovery in Long-Term Unemployment Wall Street Journal ...Job openings are back to precession levels but long-term unemployment has yet to catch up. Almost 2% of the labor force have been out of work for 27 weeks or longer...The Unfinished Civil War Jacobin …we can’t leave the South alone, even if we wanted to. And we shouldn’t want to, because there are actually enormous organizing possibilities in the region...Families of workers killed in Dallas office tower speak out KHOU ..."They didn't have any oxygen, no training, no safety preparation, and no fire extinguisher," Garcia said...Worker Killed in Explosion at Ammunition Factory Aol Jobs …Federal investigators are returning to the scene of a deadly explosion at an ammunition factory in Tennessee. One worker was killed and three others were injured in the blast...FedEx truck crash sends packages spilling onto a Georgia highway GOX News …the truck driver says he was hauling two trailers Tuesday morning and lost control after the second one became loose. Cleanup was ongoing into the afternoon and some packages were destroyed...

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Teamster NewsAnne Arundel County Fire Department Battalion Chiefs Choose Teamsters teamster.org ...–Anne Arundel County Fire Department battalion chiefs have voted unanimously to join Teamsters Local 355 in Baltimore...Negotiations At VIA Rail: The Teamsters Union And The Employer Have Requested A Conciliator CNW News ...The bargaining process between the 350 Locomotive Engineers at VIA Rail represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) and the rail carrier, are at a point that both parties agree that third party assistance would be beneficial...CN reaches tentative labour agreement with Teamsters union representing locomotive engineers and conductors on Northern Quebec Internal Short Line Yahoo Finance ...The four-year agreement would provide wage increases and benefit improvements to 93 employees. Details of the agreement are being withheld pending ratification by the affected TCRC members. The union is expected to announce the results of the ratification vote by the end of February 2015...Council Asks EPA For Bridgeton Landfill Contaminant Studies KMOX ...The St. Louis County Council has unanimously passed a resolution that pushes the Environmental Protection Agency to release studies on groundwater contamination at the Bridgeton Landfill...TradeElizabeth Warren: Obama Trade Deal Could Undermine Wall Street Reform Huffington Post ..."With millions of families still struggling to recover from the last financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed, we cannot afford a trade deal that undermines the government's ability to protect the American economy."...The consequences of a crumbling TTIP (opinion) Euractiv …A growing number of Europeans see TTIP as selling out Europe's social and environmental standards. Perhaps the EU and the US should have never undertaken this mammoth project...State BattlesWarren County Passes Local Right-To-Work Law ...The General Motors plant in Warren County is a closed shop, meaning its 888 employees must pay union dues in order to work there. But the Warren County Fiscal Court passed a local law Friday banning that practice in the future, defying the state's Democratic attorney general and taking the first step toward trying to overturn a 49-year-old state decision...Minimum Wage On Agenda At Legislature Albuquerque Journal ...Two bills have been pre-filed this week by Democratic lawmakers, both seeking a hike in the state’s current $7.50-per-hour minimum wage – one of them to $8.30 an hour and the other to $10.10....Minimum Wage In Louisville Upped To $9 Louisville Courier Journal ...The Metro Council and Mayor Greg Fischer, who were at odds over increasing the minimum wage, reached an agreement Thursday night with the council voting to increase the minimum wage in Jefferson County to $9 an hour gradually over three years...Ohio's Minimum Wage Increase Expected To Boost Economy By $40 Million Cleveland Plain Dealer ...As the calendar flips to 2015, Ohio's minimum wage will increase by 15 cents to $8.10 per hour, benefiting an estimated 313,000 low-wage workers in the state, according to a release from the National Employment Law Project, a non-partisan, nonprofit organization that advocates on issues affecting low-wage and unemployed workers. In addition, the minimum wage for tipped workers in Ohio will rise by 7 cents to $4.05 per hour...War on WorkersObama labor board comes down hard on McDonald’s Politico …In a significant victory for fast-food demonstrators, the Obama administration filed 13 legal complaints on Friday against McDonald’s USA, LLC, alleging 78 instances in which it violated federal labor law by punishing workers for taking part in fast food protests...When the Well Educated Middle Class Joins the Working Poor BillMoyers.com ...Today, around three-quarters of all US college professors are classified as “contingent faculty” — those who aren’t on a tenure track — and about half are technically “part-time,” even though many of them teach a full-time load of classes. They may be highly educated professionals, but most adjuncts struggle to make ends meet with low pay, limited benefits and zero job security...Yard Worker Killed Trade Winds ...The worker was on a ladder about 30 feet above the deck at the time. He lost his balance and fell, striking his head on a beam...Employee Dies While Working At Dayton Sand And Gravel Portland Press Herald ...Goodwin Mills Fire Chief Roger Hooper said Libby was climbing down a ladder attached to a bucket truck when he went into cardiac arrest and fell....The death is the second at the business in two yearsl...Construction Worker Dies In Emerson NorthJersey.com ...A construction worker was killed Thursday afternoon when he was working near a backhoe and was hit in the head by the machine’s rear bucket, authorities said...Miscellaneous

Friday, December 19, 2014

Teamster NewsTeamsters settles grievance with town over surveilance cameras in town hall Watertown Daily Times ...the language added to the contract though helps alleviate concerns that the cameras were being installed to monitor employees...Hamburg Ratifies Contract Sun News ...After about two and a half years, clerical staff in the Hamburg Central School District have a new contract, with a five-year collective bargaining agreement between the district and Teamsters Local 264 unanimously approved at the school board’s Dec. 9 meeting...Opposition to Carriage Horse Ban is Growing: Poll New York Observer ...Some 67 percent of residents polled in new Quinnipiac University poll released today said they do not believe Mayor Bill de Blasio should ban horse-drawn carriages, something he promised to do on “day one” of his administration. Just 22 percent of those polled supported the mayor’s plans to nix the industry...Backing The Wrong Horse City Journal ...In threatening to ban Central Park horse carriages, he is taking on a popular and well-connected industry and making enemies out of natural allies. The 300 or so carriage drivers, represented by Teamsters Local 553, enjoy the support of the Central Labor Council, representing 1.3 million workers in the five boroughs, as well as the left-wing Working Families Party...Security Workers At Indian Point Have 5-Year Contract Patch ...Entergy and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 456 have a new contract for the union’s approximately 186 members who work in security positions at the Indian Point Energy Center...Offset Paperback Won’t Eliminate 37 Jobs Citizens Voice ...Unionized employees are represented by the Graphic Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 137C...Hernando Commission Approves Proposed Contract With Employees Tampa Bay Times ...The county's roughly 430 bargaining unit members with Teamsters Local 79 will vote on the pact at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 5 in the jury assembly room at the Hernando County Government Center. Teamsters business agent John Sholtes is enthusiastically supportive of the proposed contract...TradeElizabeth Warren, other Democrats raise concerns about free-trade pact with Asia Washington Post ...Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday voiced new concerns over President Obama’s trade agenda as congressional Democrats ramp up efforts to slow the administration’s bid to finalize a major free-trade pact in Asia that the president has called a top priority..."NAFTA on Steroids" Trade Talks to Wrap Up The Free Press ..."This whole thing is an attempt to make sure that capitalism runs completely unabated by any legislator or regulator," said Jackson at the November meeting of Maine's Citizen Trade Policy Commission, a panel of state lawmakers and stakeholders who advise federal policy makers on trade policy. "The few elite will decide what's best for all of us, and it won't get debated. It'll get voted up or down, and that is not transparent government in any shape or form."...Latest secret TPPA leak reveals mass surveillance plans The Daily Blog ...a seemingly innocuous e-commerce chapter in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) could become a stalking horse for the NSA to get its hands on our personal data, as well as sweeping away privacy protections and controls on internet commerce...Democrats urge officials to leave out investor-state dispute provisions in major trade deals The Hill ...Several House and Senate Democrats are urging the Obama administration to leave out provisions in a two major trade deals they say could lead to changes in U.S. finanical regulations...State BattlesWisconsin Teamsters laying groundwork for right-to-work battle TeamsterNation ...Anti-worker politicians in Wisconsin are spoiling for a fight against working people in 2015, and Wisconsin Teamsters are ready to defend them if necessary...Foes of Unions Try Their Luck in County Laws New York Times ...Beginning here in the hometown of Senator Rand Paul and the Chevy Corvette, groups including the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Heritage Foundation and a newly formed nonprofit called Protect My Check are working together to influence local governments the same way they have influenced state legislatures, and anti-union ordinances are just the first step in the coordinated effort they envision...Indiana Supreme Court Dismisses ‘Right To Work’ Challenge Indianapolis Star ...The Indiana Supreme Court has dismissed a second challenge to the state’s “right to work” law. The state’s high court unanimously dismissed the case Tuesday — a move that was expected after justices upheld the law in a similar case last month...Why Did Wisconsin Club for Growth Send $750K to a Dark-Money Group in Missouri Last Year? Express Express ...I’ve always wondered why a Missouri-based attorney was mixed up in a case involving Wisconsin’s campaign finance laws. Is the Wisconsin Club for Growth’s money the link? And, if so, why?...EBay parts ways with controversial political group ALEC Reuters ...Ebay Inc said on Thursday that it will end its association with the American Legislative Exchange Council, a political group that other tech companies dropped earlier this year due to its views on climate change...Uber Strikes Deal With Portland to Suspend Service for Three Months Wall Street Journal ...Uber reached an agreement with Portland to suspend operations in the city for three months while regulators work to revise rules around taxis that currently prohibit ridesharing apps...After A Spate Of Bad Press For Uber, Some Turn Back To Traditional Taxicabs New York Daily News ...The renegade taxi service has been a worldwide punching bag all year — thanks to prices that become astronomical during peak times, a company official who suggested investigating reporters, drivers who have sexually harassed and allegedly raped customers, and claims of bizarre routes meant to jack up prices — and more and more New Yorkers are hitting delete...War on WorkersAmerica’s Wealth Gap Is Becoming a Wealth Chasm Slate …"The upper fifth of households by income, their typical wealth levels have indeed started to mend from the devastation of the Great Recession," says Richard Fry, a researcher at Pew and author on the report. "But for the bottom four-fifths of households, particularly the middle income households, they’ve made no gains."...Meet the Men and Women on the Hill Who Told Citigroup to Go to Hell Wall Street on Parade ...Citigroup received the largest taxpayer bailout in history during the financial crisis as a result of its unchecked derivatives: $45 billion in TARP funds; over $306 billion in asset guarantees; and more than $2 trillion in low-cost loans from the Fed according to the General Accountability Office. The abject repulsion that the very bank that got the biggest handout and played a pivotal role in collapsing the economy should now be gaming Congress to repeal financial protections drew a joint letter of protest from Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana and Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio...Sorry, Kevin Yoder: Your measure really is about helping the big banks (opinion) Kansas City Star ...Ever since he was named last week as the sponsor of a controversial measure rolling back a significant financial reform, U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder has been trying to have it both ways. The Republican from Kansas wants constituents to think his motives were all about helping out community banks and farmers. But the biggest beneficiaries are Wall Street banks, which already have rewarded Yoder handsomely and will continue to do so...20 States Raise Their Minimum Wages While the Federal Minimum Continues to Erode Economic Policy Institute ...these increases will provide workers with $2.5 billion in additional wages over the course of the year. This added pay represents a modest, but significant, boost to the spending power of the affected workers, many of whom have children and families to support...Oil Trains Hold Upper Hand As Pipeline Called Off Houston Chronicle ...The big increase in rail transport has raised safety concerns and pushed regulators to examine hazardous materials shipping standards in the face of high-profile accidents - including a July 6, 2013, derailment and explosion that killed 47 people in Lac-Megantic, Quebec...MiscellaneousBeach man saved by UPS worker dies in hospital surrounded by family WTKR ... Last week Marvin went into cardiac arrest while inside the Calvary Baptist Church in Virginia Beach. At that moment, UPS workers Sisha Perea and her husband Rob pulled up to deliver a package. Sisha gave Marvin CPR and saved his life...

Above, Teamsters Local 200 in Milwaukee hosted a Milwaukee Building Trades Council workshop for understanding and education union members about right to work in Wisconsin. Brother Tom Millonzi, secretary-treasurer of Local 200, sent us these photos of building trades managers and business representatives who attended with Teamsters from Local 200, 344, 662 and 695.

They learned that 'right ti work' doesn't mean what it seems to mean. Grossly misnamed right-to-work laws actually decrease wages, lower median household income, increase poverty, and undermine workplace safety. A supporter of right to work even admitted to the press that right-to-work laws don't create jobs. He said, 'we’re not purporting to prove that right-to-work produces superior economic performance.'It does what CEOs and billionaires want it to do: push wages down, ship jobs overseas and take away freedoms at work in order to make even more obscene profit and exercise even more power over workers' lives.

Wisconsin is fortunate to have a number of enlightened businesses that oppose right to work. The Associated Press reported yesterday that a coalition of business has formed to fight right to work:

A newly formed coalition of more than 300 construction-related private businesses in Wisconsin announced Wednesday that it will work to defeat a right-to-work proposal being discussed by Republican leaders in the Legislature.

Formation of the group comes as talks proceed behind the scenes among Republicans who control the Legislature about the timing of a right-to-work bill and what form it may take.

Gov. Scott Walker repeated his message Wednesday, during a brief speech to Republican state senators in the Capitol, that he sees right-to-work as a distraction from his agenda. He told lawmakers he wants them focused on his legislative agenda, but he also didn't promise to veto a right-to-work bill should it pass.

Wisconsin, sadly, isn't the only state where politicians are attacking workers' wages, their safety and their rights at work. In Kentucky, illegal local right-to-work laws are advancing through three counties and more are expected. In Missouri, a state lawmaker announced his intention to file a right-to-work bill in the next session.

Teamster NewsTeamsters, Consumers And Community Protest UNFI Shareholders Meeting teamster.org ... Teamsters, organic food consumers, supply chain workers and community leaders protested the unsustainable practices of United Natural Foods, Inc. (NYSE: UNFI) and its retail partner Whole Foods Market at UNFI’s annual shareholders meeting today. The protestors informed UNFI shareholders and put management on notice that continued worker abuse and intimidation will not be tolerated...BLET/Teamsters, Smart-TD And Four Other Rail Unions Bargain Together teamster.org ...Top leaders of the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART–TD) and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) announced today that their organizations will be participating with four other rail unions in coordinated bargaining in the upcoming round of national negotiations...Some Labor Unions Reluctant To Back ’24 Olympics Effort Boston Globe ...The International Olympic Committee wants assurances that there is broad public support in the city that would host the Games. And the support of [Teamsters] Local 25’s 11,000-person army of truck drivers, parking lot attendants, and others could play a crucial role...St. Louis County Council Cites 'Growing Consensus' On West Lake Landfill Dangers St. Louis Post Dispatch ...The St. Louis County Council says there is “growing consensus” that the radioactively contaminated West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton “presents an active danger to the community,” and it’s putting new pressure on federal regulators to take action...TradeNew TISA Leak: US on Collision Course With EU Over Global Data Flows techdirt …Like TPP and TAFTA/TTIP, TISA is being negotiated in strict secrecy, but earlier this year the financial services annex leaked, giving us the first glimpse of the kind of bad ideas that were being worked on. Now, another leak has surfaced, which reveals the US's proposals to free up data flows online...GPhA Expresses Concern Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Negotiations Could Hinder Access and Competition to Generic Drugs First Word Pharma ...GPhA and its member companies are concerned about any effort to include provisions in the TPP agreement that would hinder competition and access to the safe and affordable medicines that the generic pharmaceutical industry provides to patients in the United States and abroad...State BattlesHow ALEC helped undermine public unions Washington Post ... the success of ALEC-derived labor bills resulted in lower public union density beginning three to four years after those bills became law. On average, state public-sector union density fell by about three percentage points per year, or nearly 10 percent of the current level of public-sector union density in the country as a whole...Missouri’s Minimum Wage Rises In 2015, No Change In Kansas Kansas City Star ...Missouri is among 29 states that have, or will have as of Jan. 1, state minimums that are higher than the current federal rate of $7.25 an hour...Unions, retirees sue to block Chicago pension changes Reuters …Chicago public employee unions and others on Tuesday opened a new front in the battle over pension cuts for public workers, suing to block a law aimed at shoring up funding for two of the city's public pension systems…Los Angeles hotel groups sue city over minimum wage ordinance Washington Post …The American Hotel & Lodging Association and the Asian American Hotel Owner Association filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the city of Los Angeles over an ordinance that raises minimum wage for hotel workers to $15.37...State high court to take up Doe cases centered on Walker's campaign Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ... Four of the justices have benefited from political spending by the Wisconsin Club for Growth, one of the groups at the center of the investigation. Some legal experts have argued that at least some of those justices should not hear the cases because of actual or perceived biases from that political help...War on WorkersHow the NLRB may expand responsibility for labor violations Reuters ...The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is expected to rule soon on if, and how, companies can be held responsible for labor violations carried out by their contractors or franchisees - a move that could have far-reaching implications for businesses...Metro-North Faces Historic Fine For Retaliating Against Worker Who Reported Injury Hartford Courant ...In fining the railroad $260,000 plus legal fees, the U.S. Department of Labor said it found a culture of intimidation, in which supervisors actively tried to discourage workers from filing injury reports and punished workers who did. In November, the National Transportation Safety Board, following a string of accidents, including fatalities, said Metro-North failed to maintain effective safety programs...100 defects found during state crude oil rail inspections Albany Times Union ...The latest round of the state’s targeted crude oil tank car and rail inspections showed 100 track and train car defects, including eight that require immediate action, the governor’s office announced Monday...More than 60 million households rely on low-wage workers The Hill ...The research shows that most low-wage workers are frequently the primary breadwinners in their families and they are not, as commonly thought, teenagers with few skills still living with their parents, according to the report by Oxfam America and the Economic Policy Institute...For Low-Wage Americans, The Holiday Season Is A Time To Work Huffington Post ...More than 30 percent of Americans were living in poverty for at least two months from 2009 to 2011 -- a 4.5 percent increase from the period 2005 to 2007...Americans Are Trading Sleep For Work, And It’s Literally Killing Us Washington Post ...This isn't a particularly healthy way to live -- insufficient sleep is associated with obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and a host of other physical ailments. Drowsy driving causes around 80,000 automobile accidents every year, 1,000 of which are typically fatal...Child Labor: Number Of Children Involved Is Shrinking Every Year Christian Science Monitor ...While there are fewer children involved in child labor every year, the rate at which child labor is decreasing is slowing down at both the global and regional levels...Worker Killed In Mesa Industrial Accident Arizona Republic ...One person was killed in an industrial accident at a plant in west Mesa on Wednesday morning, according to a Mesa fire spokesman...Construction Worker Killed In Caldwell Parish Crash KNOE ...A Cadillac ATS, driven by 42-year-old Jan Williams of Columbia, was traveling north on US 165 in the outside travel lane when she attempted to move into the inside lane but struck the rear of Chevrolet pickup and all three construction workers...

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

At least one U.S. senator vows to follow the public's wishes to keep tired truckers off the road.

Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he will try to restore the 70-hour limit that truck drivers can work in a week. Congress extended those house to 82 in the hideous CRomnibus bill. The CRomnibus also lets already earned benefits be cut for retirees, allows Wall Street banks to gamble with taxpayer-insured dollars and permits rich people to spend much, much more on political campaigns.

President Obama signed the bill into law last night.

What's especially galling about the dangerous increase in the number of hours truckers may drive is how it passed. First, Maine Sen. Susan Collins sneaked it onto a spending bill -- one larded, by the way, with gifts for the wealthy (like the trucking industry) at the expense of the many.

Third, the measure was passed without hearings or debate. (Tracy Morgan is suing Walmart for its lax safety practices.) If members of Congress had openly deliberated about the dangerous increase in the number of hours truckers may drive, they would have found 80 percent of the public wants truck drivers' hours limited to 70 hours a week.

The survey by Lake Research Partners shows 80 percent of the public oppose Congress “raising the number of hours a semi-truck driver is allowed to work in a week from 70 to 82 hours,” which is “more than twice the normal work week for most people,” as the poll question reads.

“This survey reveals a clear disconnect between what the public wants and what special trucking interests want from Congress at the expense of public safety for everyone,” Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety President Jackie Gillan said in conference call. “We urge Congress to reject this anti-safety change and heed the public’s correct assessment of the dangers.”

Pollster Joshua Ulenberry called the results “remarkable” and “impressive.”

“You do not get to 80 percent opposed in any question unless you have really wide and deep support,” he said, noting the bipartisan breakdown of the survey responses.

I certainly will make an effort legislatively to reverse the rollback. All of the folks who have an interest in transportation safety are dismayed and disheartened by this rollback of common-sense safety rules, everyone from the Teamsters and the truck drivers to the safety advocates.

Anti-worker forces are starting to attack unions illegally at the local level, with three Kentucky counties trying to pass right-to-work laws in the past few weeks. Politico reported Simpson County on Tuesday joined two others -- Warren and Fulton -- to advance a local right-to-work measure.

Kentucky’s
highest court already ruled right-to-work laws can only be made at the
state level. These local ordinances are illegal. They also aren't what they seem. Grossly misnamed right-to-work laws actually decrease wages, lower median household income, increase
poverty, and undermine workplace safety in the county.CEOs and billionaires want to push wages down, ship jobs overseas, and take away freedoms at work in order to make even more obscene profit and exercise even more power over workers' lives. Sometimes right-to-work supporters actually admit what they're up to. The sponsor of a right-to-work bill in Missouri actually said that wages may drop by 'two to three dollars an hour' if right to work passes. And in Wisconsin, a spokesman for the National Right to Work Committee admitted right to work laws don't create jobs. He said, 'we’re not purporting to prove that right-to-work produces superior economic performance.'Instead of passing frivolous, illegal ordinances that only benefit the rich and powerful, Kentucky officeholders should be solving the problems of falling wages and rising joblessness. Politico has more details about the out-of-state special interest that's still trying to push a radical out-of-state agenda in Kentucky:

...a new offshoot of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) called the American City Council Exchange (ACCE) recently joined forces with the Heritage Foundation to press cities and counties to pass right-to-work legislation at the local level. The groups targeted Kentucky in particular because of what one attorney who works with ACCE termed its “favorable demographics.” It’s not clear these ordinances will pass legal muster, however, because the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which enabled states to pass right-to-work laws, refers only to a “state or territory.” Kentucky is not a right-to-work state (though it would have likely become one had Democrats lost control of the Kentucky House in the midterms).

In all three counties, right-to-work passed a first “reading,” or vote, and must pass a second to become law. In Warren County (which includes Bowling Green’s UAW-organized Corvette plant) the final reading will be Dec. 19. In Fulton County, the final reading is Dec. 29, and in Simpson County the final reading is Dec. 30.

Teamster NewsMore Than 400 Sysco Workers in Atlanta Win Teamster Representation teamster.org ...Sysco workers have voted to join Teamsters Local 528 in Atlanta. With 423 workers in the bargaining unit, the vote for Teamster representation is the biggest at Sysco in years...Workers At Selland Auto Transport Vote To Join Teamsters Union teamster.org ...A group of about 240 drivers, owner-operators and shop employees at Selland Auto Transport have voted to join the Teamsters Union in California, Washington, Oregon, Montana and Utah. Ballots were counted today at the National Labor Relations Board in Seattle...National Labor Relations Board Rules In Favor Of Teamster School Bus Workers teamster.org ...School bus drivers and monitors in Santa Rosa County, Fla., who are members of Teamsters Local 991 in Mobile, Ala., have won another victory in a decision handed down by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) [which] orders the workers’ employer, Durham School Services, to “cease and desist” failing and refusing to recognize and bargain....Minnesota Attorney General Questions Sysco, US Foods Merger St. Louis Post Dispatch ...Minnesota's attorney general has expressed concern about the merger of food distribution giants Sysco Corp. and US Foods, saying it was questionable whether any divestiture could restore competition lost to the transaction...Teamsters, Consumers, Community To Protest UNFI Shareholders Meeting Morningstar Advisor ...On Wednesday, December 17, Teamsters, organic food consumers, supply chain workers and community members will protest the unsustainable practices of United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) and its retail partner Whole Foods Market, at UNFI's annual shareholders meeting in Sacramento... Unionized Niles Police To Stay Teamsters Journal And Topics ...Rank and file Niles police officers will remain members of the Teamsters union after a vote of unionized police officers Thursday (Dec. 11)...Akron's Jobs For Sewers Program Packs The House WSKU ...Some 250 people showed up at a program on Akron’s east side that had expected to draw about half that many. “OK, guys. I’m from the Teamsters. Who’s got questions?’ And for the better part of the next two hours, the questions -- and answers – flew...Pension Fund Run By Wall Street Cited In Push To Cut Retiree Benefits International Business Times ...lawmakers have inserted language that would give private pension plans the power to cut benefits to thousands of current retirees whose pension savings were decimated by investment losses from the financial collapse of 2008...TradeHow “Citibank Budget” Push Foreshadows “Fast Track” For Trade Deals Campaign for America's Future ...After the budget, Congress’ will push to pass “fast track” legislation, to grease the skids for the TPP. Fast track trade promotion authority rigs the legislative process, essentially pre-approving “trade” deals like TPP before they are even finalized — before members of Congress even know what is in the treaties...'Fast Track' To Nowhere: Congress Shouldn't Give Obama Power To Ram Through TPP (opinion) Forbes ...The kumbaya trade agreement cheerleader crowd has convinced itself that 40 years of trade deficits don’t matter, even as the shrinkage of GDP growth has rendered the U.S. a dwindling superpower teetering on the brink of second class economy status...Bad Trade Huffington Post ...Under billions of tons of imports, the American dream is suffocating. The American people have lost faith. They know that bad trade has bled factories, middle class jobs and wage increases from the country...State BattlesSimpson County Approves Right to Work Ordinance WBKO ...5-0, a unanimous decision for Simpson County (Ky.) to become a right to work county, with four democratic magistrates voting for it...Simpson County falls in line with Warren and Fulton Counties having approved a right to work measure on the first reading...Audit: 1.7 million unemployment hotline calls blocked last year because lines were full Wisconsin State Journal …Nearly 1.7 million calls, or three out of five, to the state’s automated unemployment hotline were blocked last year because the system was too busy handling other calls, according to an audit released Tuesday....Secretive groups ran $25M in ads for state races Associated Press ...Shadowy outside groups broadcast an estimated $25 million worth of political ads on local TV stations with a goal of shaping state-level elections this year, and their full roster of donors is unlikely to ever be known, according to an analysis released Wednesday...Mayor Vows Veto Of Minimum Wage Hike To $10.10 Louisville Courier Journal ...Just hours after a Metro Council committee backed a plan to raise the local minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, Mayor Greg Fischer promised to veto it...War on WorkersWal-Mart must pay $188 million in workers' class action Reuters … The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered Wal-Mart Stores Inc to pay $188 million to employees who had sued the retailer for failing to compensate them for rest breaks and all hours worked...Southwest Airlines employees protest work conditions, delays Indianapolis Star ...As Southwest Airlines on Wednesday prepares to announce new departures from Indianapolis, its baggage handlers are contending that increased flights are causing unprecedented delays and overworked employees...Patriot coal worker dies in Kentucky mine after hit by vehicle Mineweb ...A worker was killed today in a Kentucky mine owned by Patriot Coal Co., the company’s third such fatality this year...MiscellaneousDavid Koch: I'm not an evil billionaire, I'm socially liberal! Ring of Fire …… Their critics say David Koch and his brother are responsible for secretly financing the tea party, polluting the environment, funding candidates who deny climate change, and buying elections with buckets of dough.”...Foreign lobbying oversight found lax Politico …Lobbyists working on behalf of foreign interests regularly evade laws that require registration and disclosure of their activities, a new report charges, and the Justice Department lets many violations slide...

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

CEOs who loot their companies are actually capable of being ashamed that they make hundreds of times the average salary of their workers. That's why the Teamsters want the Securities and Exchange Commission to do what Congress told it to do. The SEC is supposed to issue a rule requiring companies to disclose the gap between the pay of their CEOs and their average worker. The SEC hasn't done it yet.

And CEOs are continuing to plunder their companies and consign their workers to poverty wages.

Sen. Robert Mendendez, a New Jersey Democrat, is pressuring the SEC to obey the law Congress passed four years ago. He's had help from Public Citizen and the Teamsters, who helped him gather signatures for a letter to the SEC.

Public Citizen lauds the effort of 15 U.S. senators led by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to promote the implementation of a four-year-old law that requires publicly traded companies to disclose the ratio of CEO pay to that of the median-paid employee at the firm.

In a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which must implement the law, the senators ask for immediate attention to this provision of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

“This is the simplest of the 400 rules mandated by the Wall Street reform law,” said Bartlett Naylor, financial policy advocate for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division.

“The rule is prepared and has the public support of two of the five SEC commissioners. SEC Chair Mary Jo White need only schedule a vote.”

“This rule will help investors better understand if CEOs and average workers receive appropriate compensation,” added Naylor. “That’s important in a day when too many CEOs siphon off extraordinary investor wealth while leaving the employees who generate the revenue from products and services underpaid. This is an unsustainable recipe both for the economy and for individual firms.”

The CRomnibus bill would allow already-earned pension benefits to be cut, extend the hours a truck driver may work to 82 a week, lets Wall Street gamble with taxpayer-insured funds and lets rich people spend more money on political campaigns.

If you want to tell President Obama to veto the CRomnibus, you can email him at www.whitehouse.gov/contact. (The White House comments line has been shut down.)

David Cay Johnston points out how the CRomnibus is yet another example of Congress taking from the many and giving to the few. Unlike most journalists, Johnston focuses on the possible pension cuts rather than the Wall Street giveaway. Writes Johnston in National Memo.

In what could have been a scene in the Hunger Games movies, the big banks and our elected leaders joined together to steal from blue-collar workers.

For the first time in 40 years, since the Employee Retirement Income Security Act was adopted in 1974 to ensure workers would collect pay they deferred into pension plans for their old age, Congress decided that benefits already earned can be taken away.

Johnston calls out the elitism of the mainstream media in ignoring the pension debacle:

This historic shift got one sentence in The New York Times: “It allows certain multi-employer pension plans to shore up their finances by cutting retirees’ benefits.”...

That this provision got almost no news coverage shows just how much our leading news organizations cater to economic elites favored by advertisers, and how the current generation of reporters at the best news organizations comes heavily from the upper economic tiers of American society.

Reporters and editors whose parents were coal miners, truck drivers and clerks have given way to those with degrees from elite schools, some with trust funds that insulate them from the realities of American life for the vast majority. With that shift comes a predicable change in perspective, from “there is plenty that needs fixing” to “the world generally seems quite just.”

In the late 1990s I suggested a story about how a family gets by on two grand a month. A prosperous colleague at The Times said, “No one in New York City lives on $25,000.” When I offered to take my colleague to the subway stop at 74th St. and Roosevelt Ave. in Queens, saying we could easily find such people on the streets, the reply shifted to this: “Oh, those people. Nobody cares about those people.”

Please remember to send that email and ask President Obama to veto the CRomnibus.

Teamster NewsWhat the Cromnibus Law Means for Multiemployer Pension Plans International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans ...The law states that plans in "critical and declining status" can temporarily or permanently suspend current and future benefits...Congress Rolls Back Trucker Rest Requirements CBS12 …Fatigue is often a major factor in many crashes. So why are federal lawmakers saying its okay for big rig haulers to drive more and sleep less?...CRomnibus Heads to Oval Office U.S. News and World Report ...the bill now heads to the Oval Office for approval...Maine Senator Is Again Friend to Trucking as Rule Eased Bloomberg ...Susan Collins...got a rider attached to the spending bill approved over the weekend so truckers will no longer have to get two nights sleep in a row before starting a work week. Suspending year-old federal regulations means truckers will be allowed to work as many as 82 hours over eight days -- upending what safety advocates said was a key component of a 15-year effort to reduce deaths caused by drowsy long-haul drivers...Two N.Y. State Senators Oppose Horse-Carriage Ban, Warn Of 'Real Battle' New York Daily News ...Two Democratic state senators are the latest to come out in opposition to Mayor de Blasio’s push to ban horse carriages in the city. Sens. Diane Savino, chairwoman of the Senate Labor Committee, and Jose Peralta, the panel’s ranking minority party member, have drafted a letter to de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito vehemently opposing to the Council bill on the mayor’s plan...Entergy,Teamsters Union Agree On Contract For Indian Point Security Workers Daily Voice ... Entergy and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 456 have agreed on a new contract for the union’s approximately 186 security workers at the Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan...Keystone XL pipeline may no longer make economic sense, experts say Los Angeles Times ...plunging oil prices have analysts questioning whether the plan to link Canadian tar sands with Gulf Coast refineries still makes economic sense...TradeHatch says trade an area where GOP, Obama can work together The Hill ...Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who is expected to take the helm of the Senate Finance Committee, said passing trade promotion authority (TPA) is not only an avenue to completing two massive trade deals — the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) — but is a place where Republicans can work with President Obama...New Trade Agreements will Take Center Stage in 2015. So Will Bad Arguments Made on their Behalf. Economic Policy Institute ...while these trade-induced losses (which I estimated to be roughly $1,800 annually for a full-time worker without a college degree) do not explain all, or even the majority, of the rise in inequality over the past generation, they’re not trivial...State BattlesRight-to-work would trim union clout, but broader economic impact unclear Wisconsin State Journal ...“We’re not purporting to prove that right-to-work produces superior economic performance,” Greer said. The more important argument, he said, is that workers should have the freedom to choose whether to pay union dues or not...Florida senators relaunch bill to overhaul local pension plans Tampa Bay Times ...The measure would allow cities with faltering pension funds to use additional insurance premium tax revenues to shore up their accounts...Public money for schools buys private property Detroit Free Press ...National Heritage Academies, Michigan's largest charter management company, has an unusual arrangement with its schools. The for-profit company — and not the schools — owns the contents of its school buildings, even though those desks, computers, books and supplies may have been purchased with taxpayer money...

Kansas Governor Proposes Using Pension Money to Cover Budget Gaps Created By His Tax Cuts International Business Times ...In 2012, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed a landmark bill that delivered big tax cuts to high income earners and businesses. Less than two years after that tax cut, the state's income tax revenues plummeted by a quarter-billion dollars -- and now Brownback is pushing to use money for public employees’ pensions to instead cover the state's ensuing budget shortfalls...

W.Va. Minimum Wage Rising In 2015 And 2016 WSAZ ...Back in April, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin signed a bill raising minimum wage by 75 cents, which means it will soon rise to $8 an hour. The raise goes into effect January 1st. As part of the bill, minimum wage will go up another 75 cents in 2016...Councilors Put Off Vote On Mayor’s Plan To Raise Portland’s Minimum Wage Portland Press Herald ...The Portland City Council’s Finance Committee listened to more than two hours of testimony Thursday on a measure that would raise the city’s minimum wage to a level above the state minimum, but postponed making a final recommendation until next year...War on WorkersPension Bill Seen as Model for Further Cuts Wall Street Journal ...A measure included in Congress’s mammoth spending bill permits benefit cuts for retirees in one type of pension plan, a big shift that lawmakers and others believe could set a precedent for other troubled retirement programs...Kevin Yoder MIA After Tucking Wall Street Bailout Into Government Spending Bill Huffington Post ...For all the anger among progressives about a Wall Street bailout provision that made its way into the just-passed $1.1 trillion government spending bill, there's been little attention on the person who put it in there. Meet Congressman Kevin Yoder (R-Kansas). Yoder, a second-term congressman whose largest contributors are in the finance industry, introduced the provision last summer. It was literally written by Citigroup executives...U.S. taxpayers help fund oil-train boom amid safety concerns Reuters ...States and the federal government have handed out tens of millions in public dollars to rail companies and government agencies to expand crude oil rail transportation across the country, a Reuters analysis has found...Strikes across Belgium cause transport chaos BBC News ...The widespread industrial action is the latest in a series of strikes protesting against the new centre-right coalition's austerity policies. The government plans to save €11bn (£8.7bn) in the next five years. The 24-hour strike is the largest to have taken place in Belgium for many years. It has forced government offices and schools to close, and the country's ports have been blockaded...Wealth inequality has widened along racial, ethnic lines since end of Great Recession Pew Research Center …The wealth of white households was 13 times the median wealth of black households in 2013, compared with eight times the wealth in 2010, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. Likewise, the wealth of white households is now more than 10 times the wealth of Hispanic households, compared with nine times the wealth in 2010...The Devalued American Worker Washington Post ...Green once held a middle-class job. Now, to make enough money to send his children to college, he works the equivalent of two full-time jobs: one maintaining highways for the state of North Carolina and one ushering fans and collecting trash for a variety of sports teams around Winston-Salem...It's Going To Get A Little Easier For Workers To Unionize Huffington Post ...Federal officials unveiled new rules on Friday that will streamline and simplify the union election process, a reform long sought by labor unions and fiercely opposed by businesses...Uber Backtracks After Jacking Up Prices During Sydney Hostage Crisis Washington Post ...After an armed gunman took patrons of a Sydney chocolate shop hostage during rush hour Monday morning, the transportation company Uber quadrupled its fares for panic-stricken customers fleeing the central business district...MLGW worker dies after explosion WREG.com …A crew was trying to repair a gas line on the 4600 block of Winter Park Drive when there was a spark and an explosion…MiscellaneousThe Supreme Court just made it easier for police to search your car Vox ...The Supreme Court ruled Monday that police officers can sometimes conduct a search and seizure of a car even if that search is the result of an unlawful stop...

Monday, December 15, 2014

TeamstersTeamsters Denounce Senate Passage Of Omnibus Spending Bill teamster.org …"With the passage of the omnibus spending bill by the Senate, we have witnessed the latest attack by corporate interests on working families...TradeCall for release of Trans-Pacific Partnership text ComputerWorld ...Forty-eight non-government organisations have issued a call for the release of the draft text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement...State BattlesEarly federal sentencing recommendation for McDonnell: At least 10 years in prison Washington Post ...The federal agency that will play a pivotal role in guiding the sentence of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell has recommended that the onetime Republican rising star spend at least 10 years and a month in prison, according to several people familiar with the matter...War on WorkersCromnibus Pension Provisions Gut Forty Years of Policy, Allow Existing Pensions to Be Slashed naked capitalism …[The] measure included in Congress’s mammoth spending bill permits benefit cuts for retirees in one type of pension plan, a big shift that lawmakers and others believe could set a precedent for other troubled retirement programs. Lawmakers and experts, while divided over the merits of the change, largely agreed that it could well be the first of many...Study: For every $1 corporations spend on elections, they get $760 from government Ring of Fire …From 2007 to 2012, 200 American corporations spent about $5.8 billion on federal lobbying and campaign contributions, but that number is mere chump change when compared to what those same corporations got in return — about $4.4 trillion in federal business and support, according to a study by the Sunlight Foundation...What's Complicated About a Government That Works to Benefit Rich People? Center for Economic Policy and Research ...we have had a government committed to redistributing income upward for the last three decades...Congress Again Rewards Tax Dodgers with a Tax Cut Economic Policy Institute ...If a $1 budget reduction yields a $10.60 reduction in enforcement collections, then the $191 million reduction in the IRS enforcement budget could prove to be a $2 billion tax cut for tax cheats. There appears to be a disconnect between what Congress enacts and what the American public wants...Transport strike likely to shut down much of Belgium Agence France-Press ...Belgium risks coming to a virtual standstill tomorrow as the biggest national strike for years grounds all flights, halts public transport and severs international train links in a protest over the new government's austerity policies...Smoke killed Thanksgiving Tower workers trapped in deep tank, officials say Dallas Morning News ...Three workers killed in a Thanksgiving Tower fire died of smoke inhalation while trapped in a “dilapidated” 35-foot-deep chiller tank, authorities said Friday. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Dallas Fire-Rescue are investigating Thursday’s blaze. A city official said it appeared that the workers did not follow proper safety procedures, nor did they have the proper permit to do work with a torch, although officials still haven’t confirmed what started the fire...MiscellaneousWill cheap oil kill Keystone? Politico Pro …The same collapse in oil prices that is pumping dollars into motorists’ wallets also risks undermining the case for building the 1,179-mile pipeline in two crucial ways: It’s squeezing the western Canadian oil industry that has looked to Keystone as its most promising route to the Gulf Coast...Dancing around data The Hill …A recent Pew study found that ninety-one percent of Americans say that they have “lost control” over how their personal information is collected or used by companies...

Sunday, December 14, 2014

TeamstersTeamsters Denounce Senate Passage Of Omnibus Spending Bill teamster.org ..."With the passage of the omnibus spending bill by the Senate, we have witnessed the latest attack by corporate interests on working families. Big business and Wall Street have bought and paid for influence and access that has allowed them to continue to enrich corporations at the expense of the middle class....The end of horse-drawn carriages in New York City? Pet Today ...Video: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he’s sticking to his election promise to outlaw one of the city’s most iconic images, horse-drawn carriages...Schwebel's eyes first quarter of 2015 for closure of Cuyahoga Falls plant Falls News Press …Of the 119 employees, 100 are represented by either Teamsters Local 377 (Drivers), Teamsters Local 336 or Teamsters Local 52; the other 19 are not in a union, according to the letter...TradeColumn: What you should to know about hushed negotiations taking place between the EU and US thejournal.ie ...There are huge concerns regarding the secrecy in which the TTIP negotiations have been shrouded. We only became aware of the mandate for the negotiations through a leaked document and subsequent public pressure forced the European Commission, an undemocratically appointed body, to make it publicly available...Don’t fast track TPP My San Antonio ...Unbelievably, they want this fast track legislation passed before we or Congress know what is in the TPP, which is being negotiated in secrecy. The fast tracking of the trade agreement bears scrutiny because it will be worse than the failed North American Free Trade Agreement passed in 1994...War on WorkersAmericans are 40% poorer than before the recession MarketWatch ...The net worth of American families — the difference between the values of their assets, including homes and investments, and liabilities — fell to $81,400 in 2013, down slightly from $82,300 in 2010, but a long way off the $135,700 in 2007, according to a new report...Why America's middle class is lost Washington Post ...Workers today produce nearly twice as many goods and services per hour on the job as they did in 1989, but as a group, they get less of the nation’s economic pie. In 81 percent of America’s counties, the median income is lower today than it was 15 years ago...‘Enough is enough’: Elizabeth Warren’s launches fiery attack after Congress weakens Wall Street regs Washington Post ...in recent years, many Wall Street institutions have exerted extraordinary influence in Washington’s corridors of power, but Citigroup has risen above the others. Its grip over economic policymaking in the executive branch is unprecedented...Warren to banks: We should have ‘broken you into pieces’ The Hill ...Warren argues the repeal of the provision is a hand out to powerful banks that would leave taxpayer holding the bag again if risky investments fall through. “I agree with you Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect,” Warren said. “It should have broken you into pieces...Senate Passes $1.1 Trillion Spending Bill Associated Press ...The vote was 56-40 in favor of the measure, which funds nearly the entire government through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year. It also charts a new course for selected shaky pension plans covering more than 1 million retirees, including the possibility of benefit cuts...New Leak Reveals Luxembourg Tax Deals for Disney, Koch Brothers Empire International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ...Disney and Koch Industries, a U.S.-based energy and chemical conglomerate, both created tangles of interlocking corporations in Luxembourg that may have helped them slash the taxes they pay in the U.S. and Europe, according to the documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists...How to stop wage stagnation? Stronger collective bargaining, says new report Left Foot Forward ...The reports says that average wage growth in developed economies has fluctuated around 1 per cent per year since 2006 and then slowed further in 2012 and 2013 to only 0.1 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively...3 workers killed in fire at Dallas high-rise USA Today ...The fire broke out in the garage of the 50-story glass tower just before 11 a.m., forcing about 2,800 people to evacuate. The three workers who died were subcontractors working on the air conditioning system in the basement garage, Dallas Fire Rescue spokesman Jason Evans said...

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Teamster NewsWhile Cromnibus Waits, Teamsters Object to Pension Plan Roll Call ...the Senate might not be able to hold its final vote on the measure until Monday...Teamsters Object. With the fiscal 2015 spending bill on track for action, the Teamsters union is weighing in with a last-ditch effort to get lawmakers to reject the measure. A statement from Teamsters President Jim Hoffa pointed to pension changes in the measure, which the union said would result “in an untold number of retirees losing a substantial percentage of their fixed income should reductions be required.” The Teamsters are also objecting to the controversial hours of service rules in the bill...34-Hour Restart Changes: House Passes Spending Bill; Eyes On Senate Commercial Carrier Journal ...First, it removes the requirement that drivers’ 34-hour restarts include two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods. Second, it removes the one-per-week limit of the restart’s use. It also requires FMCSA to produce a study to show how the restart provisions improve safety. The stay of enforcement of the rules will end after Sept. 30, 2015, and after FMCSA provides its report justifying the rules...Reid Announces Weekend Votes After Blockade (Updated) Roll Call ...Reid also said that absent an agreement, the Senate would vote at 1 a.m. Sunday to limit debate on the cromnibus spending package...CRomnibus Disaster Signals a Sad New Normal in D.C. The Fiscal Times ...Under the bill, trustees would be enabled to cut pension benefits to current retirees, reversing a 40-year bond with workers who earned their retirement packages...Sysco Poised To Complete $8.2B Merger With US Foods New York Post ...Sysco is poised to complete the $8.2 billion merger with its closest rival, US Foods, but at a much stiffer price than expected, The Post has learned. America’s biggest food-service provider, Sysco is selling assets worth $5 billion to Performance Food Group (owned by Steve Schwarzman-led Blackstone Group) to win regulatory approval, two sources said. That is equal to roughly one-quarter of US Foods’ revenue...Congressman Urges Cooperation Between Teamsters And Giant Eagle Distributor WFMJ ...Representative Ryan as sent letters pleading with the Tamarkin Company and Teamsters Local 377 to “quickly and efficiently negotiate a fair resolution to the ongoing labor dispute. The result of an impasse is simply not in the best interests of the workers, the company or this community,” writes Ryan...State AFL-CIO opposes Bill de Blasio's horse carriage ban New York Daily News ... A resolution passed Friday by the state AFL-CIO says New York City's carriage industry provides 300 good middle-class jobs. The major statewide labor coalition is the latest of several union groups to vow to fight the mayor's proposal...TradeGrowing U.S. trade deficit with China cost 3.2 million jobs between 2001 and 2013, with job losses in every state Economic Policy Institute ...a growing U.S. goods trade deficit with China has the United States piling up foreign debt, losing export capacity, and losing jobs, especially in the vital but under-siege manufacturing sector...Obama 'more optimistic' about Pacific trade deal The Hill ...President Obama said Thursday he believes the odds for striking a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement are "significantly higher than 50-50" in a meeting Thursday with his export council...State BattlesWarren County Votes To Become Right To Work County WBKO ...Fiscal Court approved a right to work ordinance on the first reading Thursday morning with a vote of 5-1, democrat Tommy Hunt was the lone magistrate against it...Jury still out on Michigan's growth, lack of since becoming right-to-work state WNEM.com …Woods said right-to-work isn't creating jobs in Michigan. "Michigan still ranks in the top 10 states in unemployment rate at 7.1 percent," she said...Rex Sinquefield’s million-dollar donation heralds new craziness in Missouri Kansas City Star ...many Missouri Republicans are very nervous about Sinquefield’s ostentatious bankrolling of his personal slate of candidates for the 2016 statewide ticket...NJ AFL-CIO supports ‘Buy America’ bills PolitickerNJ ...Urgently needed legislation that will give American-made products and U.S. workers a fair shake in the domestic marketplace cleared another legislative hurdle on Thursday, December 11, when it was released by the Assembly Budget Committee...GOP may seek last push for Pa. action TribLive ...[Pennsylvania] Lawmakers could make a final push to privatize state liquor stores, reform the public pension system and end government collection of union dues from paychecks — proposals Wolf opposes...The Koch Wall Street Crusade To Rob Pensions Is Underway PoliticusUSA ...despite sending his state into an economic tailspin after squandering a budget surplus and cutting services to provide unimaginable tax cuts for the rich, Kansas governor Sam Brownback is robbing employee pensions to cover the state’s devastating budget shortfalls...Koch brothers group files suit against Calif. AG, refuses to disclose donors Legal Newsline ...nonprofit group founded by the Koch brothers is challenging California Attorney General Kamala Harris’ threat to take its state tax-exempt status unless it discloses the identities of its donors...War on WorkersRuling Lets Work Email Be Used To Organize Unions New York Times ...Calling that ruling “clearly incorrect,” the current majority noted how technology had transformed daily habits. “The workplace is ‘uniquely appropriate’ and ‘the natural gathering place’ for such communications,” the board wrote, “and the use of email as a common form of workplace communication has expanded dramatically in recent years.”...The Vanishing Male Worker: How America Fell Behind New York Times ...Working, in America, is in decline. The share of prime-age men — those 25 to 54 years old — who are not working has more than tripled since the late 1960s, to 16 percent. More recently, since the turn of the century, the share of women without paying jobs has been rising, too. The United States, which had one of the highest employment rates among developed nations as recently as 2000, has fallen toward the bottom of the list...Wage Theft Costing Workers Millions of Dollars RH Reality Check ...The lost wages in those two states represent $20 million in lost income per week in New York and $29 million in lost income per week in California...Construction Worker Killed After Roof Collapsed WGTU ...A 51-year-old West Branch man was killed after falling through the roof of a building...MiscellaneousVerizon's New, Encrypted Calling App Comes Pre-Hacked For The NSA Bloomberg Businessweek ...Verizon is the latest big company to enter the post-Snowden market for secure communication, and it's doing so with an encryption standard that comes with a way for law enforcement to access ostensibly secure phone conversations...